On May 15, 2024, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced their second round of recommended awards for fiscal year 2024, totaling more than $110 million in direct funding support to arts organizations and programs throughout the United States. Among this round’s recipients are 17 from Arizona!
“These projects exemplify the creativity and care with which communities are telling their stories, creating connection, and responding to challenges and opportunities in their communities—all through the arts,” said NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson, PhD. “So many aspects of our communities such as cultural vitality, health and well-being, infrastructure, and the economy are advanced and improved through investments in art and design, and this funding at the local, state, and regional levels demonstrates the National Endowment for the Arts’ commitment to ensuring people across the country benefit.”
As part of the application review process, the NEA works with panelists with relevant knowledge and experience who reviewed the applications and rated them in accordance with published review criteria. Recommendations were then presented to the National Council on the Arts. The council made its recommendations to the NEA Chair, who then made the final decision on all grant awards. Learn more about the grant review process or volunteer to be a panelist.
Grants for Arts Projects
Grants for Arts Projects (GAP) provides expansive funding opportunities to strengthen the nation’s arts and cultural ecosystem. It is the National Endowment for the Arts’ largest grants program for organizations, with matching grants ranging from $10,000 to $100,000. Designated local arts agencies eligible to subgrant may request from $30,000 to $150,000 for subgranting programs. In July 2023, the NEA received 2,129 eligible applications requesting more than $111 million in FY24 support. Following a competitive application review process, 1,135 projects are approved for funding in this round, including to first-time applicants, totaling more than $37 million in 48 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia.
Grants for Arts Projects supports an expansive range of projects of varying sizes and scope across artistic disciplines with a focus on agency priorities: opportunities for public engagement with the arts and arts education, the integration of the arts with strategies that promote the health and well-being of people and communities, and the improvement of overall capacity and capabilities within the arts sector, including the efforts of nationwide and field-specific service organizations.
City of Mesa, Arizona
$75,000
Mesa, AZ
Purpose: To support the Día de los Muertos Festival, an annual celebration of Latin American art and culture.
United Sound, Inc.
$21,375
Mesa, AZ
Purpose: To support a music education program for students with disabilities.
Western Jazz Presenters Network
$30,000
Oro Valley, AZ
Purpose: To support a tour of the Western United States by jazz harpist Brandee Younger with her trio, presented by the Western Jazz Presenters Network.
Phoenix Art Museum
$40,000
Phoenix, AZ
Purpose: To support an exhibition featuring work by Charles Gaines (b. 1944).
Phoenix Symphony Association (aka The Phoenix Symphony)
$30,000
Phoenix, AZ
Purpose: To support Reverb: A Contemporary Festival, exploring works by living composers.
School of Architecture (aka School of Architecture at Taliesin)
$30,000
Scottsdale, AZ
Purpose: To support a creative coding workshop for Native youth from the Tohono O’odham Nation.
Scottsdale Arts
$50,000
Scottsdale, AZ
Purpose: To support a visual arts exhibition highlighting issues faced by women, queer, and transgender people.
West Valley Arts Council
$25,000
Surprise, AZ
Purpose: To support a year-long series of exhibitions, workshops, and lectures.
American Literary Translators Association (aka ALTA)
$30,000
Tucson, AZ
Purpose: To support the annual ALTA Conference and a mentorship program.
Arizona Theatre Company (aka ATC)
$15,000
Tucson, AZ
Purpose: To support staff salaries and artist fees for a playwrights festival.
Borderlands Theater (aka Teatro Fronterizo)
$30,000
Tucson, AZ
Purpose: To support Teatro Fronterizo’s “No Place Like Home,” a theatrical showcase highlighting the link between arts participation and well-being, and accompanying community engagement activities.
Fox Tucson Theatre Foundation
$20,000
Tucson, AZ
Purpose: To support performance and educational residencies.
Lead Guitar
$35,000
Tucson, AZ
Purpose: To support staff salaries and teaching artist fees for a free, year-long classical guitar program for students and professional development for teachers.
True Concord Voices and Orchestra (aka True Concord)
$25,000
Tucson, AZ
Purpose: To support the editing, audio mastering, and promotion of a CD recording of works by American composer Jocelyn Hagen.
Tucson Symphony Society (aka Tucson Symphony Orchestra)
$25,000
Tucson, AZ
Purpose: To support the Young Composers Project, a music composition program.
Our Town
Our Town is the NEA’s creative placemaking grants program, supporting projects that integrate arts, culture, and design into local efforts that strengthen communities over the long term. Matching grants in this category range from $25,000 to $150,000. Of the 263 eligible applications, 68 projects are approved for funding totaling $5 million in 34 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia.
Our Town funding requires a partnership between a nonprofit organization and a local government entity, with one of the partners being a cultural organization. Projects advance local economic, physical, or social outcomes in communities, are responsive to unique local conditions, authentically engage communities, center equity, advance artful lives, and lay the groundwork for long-term systems change.
Living Streets Alliance
$90,000
Tucson, AZ
Purpose: To support a series of traffic-calming interventions and community activities in Tucson, Arizona.
Southwest Folklife Alliance, Inc.
$70,000
Tucson, AZ
Purpose: To support a series of community engagement strategies culminating in a performance and permanent art installation at the Louis’ Market in Tucson, Arizona.
Banner photo: Residents of Tucson’s historic Barrio Anita neighborhood attend an evening of storytelling, video installations, and theatre making presented by Borderlands Theatre. Photo by Kate Gross, courtesy of Borderlands Theatre, © 2018.
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